Many coin operated vending machines have been invented over the years for dispensing various articles. Throughout the United States steps are being taken to improve vending machines. Vending machines have been in use for many years for dispensing many different size and shaped articles. The primary advantage of the vending machine is that they do not require the presence of an operator and hence reduce the cost of delivering the article to the consumer. The consumer merely inserts the proper coinage in the machine and self-operates the mechanism to have the desired product dispensed. The primary responsibility the owner of the vending machine has is to service and refill the machine on a periodic basis and to remove the coins deposited therein in exchange for the vended merchandise.
The invention described herein is a vending machine to vend a paper tablet, one at a time, typically used in schools. The invention has great utility in schools or any other place where paper tablets might be needed on the spur of the moment. Airports, bus stations and other places where the public gathers are appropriate locations for the invention. The invention requires no sales labor at all.
Therefore the invention has a significant economic benefit over purchasing a pencil from a retail clerk in a retail setting.
The invention stores twice the amount of product as previous machines stored. This reduces the service labor by increasing the interval between service to restock the invention.
Further, the invention requires no outside sources of power, either electric or pneumatic in order to function. Therefore, the operating costs of the invention are extremely low. The only operating cost associated with the invention is the service labor to collect the coins from the coin deposit box and to restock the paper tablets in the storage hopper inside the cabinet.
Many machines have been developed in the past to vend newspapers, magazines or the like.
Pat. No. 2,819,817 issued to MacKenzie discloses a newspaper or magazine vending machine which includes a vertically oriented, horizontally moveable actuating bar. At the lower end of the actuating bar is a spike and a roller mechanism.
Pat. No. 2,501,970 issued to Sawitzke discloses a newspaper vending machine. The vending machine includes a reciprocally movable newspaper ejector.
Pat. No. 2,522,033 issued to Graham discloses a vending machine with a horizontally moveable shoe to facilitate the dispensing of a newspaper.
Pat. No. 1,946,183 issued to Williamson discloses a vending machine for stacked articles such as tablets, flat packages and papers or the like with the article to be dispensed is disposed in a container above the vending chute.
Pat. No. 2,751,112 issued to Bierwert discloses a vending machine for paper and pencil products in two separate containers joined together for simultaneous Vending from the respective cabinets.
Pat. No. 4,367,826 issued to Glaser discloses a apparatus for dispensing a flat rectangular article from the top of a stack, the stack of articles being disposed downwardly from the coin mechanism and the ejection chute.
Pat. No. 4,140,243 issued to Etes discloses a vending machine with a mechanism for preventing elevation of the stacked newspapers to prevent unauthorized withdrawal of the newspapers or the magazines or the other flat articles. The dispensing mechanism is located in an upwardly disposed compartment and the newspapers or magazines are located in a lower compartment.
Pat. No. 2,036,921 issued to Christmas discloses a coin vending machine for dispensing stackable merchandise which is visible for observation from the observers vantage point.
Pat. No. 2,702,145 issued to Paulus discloses an apparatus for storing and dispensing a supply of stacked flat photo-sensitive paper sheets in a light proof dispensing container, and including a manipulatable dispensing mechanism for engaging the top sheet of the stored stack and ejecting the engaged sheet through a discharge outlet or mouth.
Pat. No. 4,770,321 issued to Anderson discloses a dispensing machine for magazines and newspapers. The vended product to be dispensed is located downwardly from the door access mechanism, being activated by a standard coin vending mechanism.
None of these previous efforts, however, provide the benefits attendant with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest, the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available materials. Further, the present invention requires no outside source of power whatsoever to function.
It is an object of the invention to provide a vending machine that is easily maintainable in the field by service personnel with a minimum of mechanical skills.
A further object of the invention to provide a vending machine with storage capacity for a large number of tablets to reduce the frequency of service for reloading new merchandise.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a machine for vending the paper tablet one at a time in a manner to prevent jamming therein.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a vending machine that discourages theft of the unvended merchandise and the unauthorized removal of the coins contained therein.
A still further important object of the invention to provide a vending machine that is not dependent on any external power source to have the product vended.
It is a final object of the invention to provide a vending machine that is dependent upon gravity alone to deliver the vended product to the purchaser.
Although there have been many inventions relating to mechanical vending machine for vending flat stacked articles, none of the inventions have become sufficiently compact, low cost and reliable enough to become commonly used. The present invention meets the requirements of a simplified design, low initial cost, low operating cost, ease of installation and maintainability, and independent of an outside power source.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.